Prior to last Christmas, I had never had any experience with a GoPro camera. So ever since I received one I have been intrigued by how I have gone about learning how to use it.

Interestingly, when I first turned it on, I was slightly intimidated by the camera. This was fascinating to me since I teach technology! I really didn’t know what the camera’s capability was or what I could do with it (other than the obvious action footage).

Just before school ended for the break, we acquired access to lynda.com instructional videos. So, for two days over the holidays I spent about 2 hours watching videos about the GoPro. In that time all I learned was how to manage all the controls. I was completely happy pouring through those videos and really needed to understand HOW it worked before I could start to think about how I could use it.

This approach totally surprised me! In class I am for ever asking students to just try something and see what happens. Yet I couldn’t do that myself.
Then I realized this wasn’t so different from many things that I do…. When I cook I almost always have a recipe and when I travel I read all about hype history and location and make a list of places I would like to see. However, after building some background knowledge and thinking through my plans, I feel free to experiment – I alter about 50% of each recipe and make substitutions! despite having a vague itinerary places I visit I take my time and wander from one spot to the next without adhering to a schedule, exploring unknown locales and try to include as many stops as possible to see what life is really like there.

A friend once asked why it was so easy for me to travel so many places in the world… At first I had no idea but then I realized my approach to so many things is: Don’t be scared – Be prepared

Apparently I need to know where the box is before I feel comfortable enough to explore it’s boundaries. I wonder how true this is for the students that I teach and the colleagues that I work with. How many of them also need time to really get a sense of how something works or make a plan before they can experiment with it?

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